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Sometimes we used curved axes, sometimes we didn’t – they all worked superbly well on vertical water ice. Cubby with Dag Kolsrud after the first ascent of The Grutnafossen (V) – the equivalent of three Mega Route X’s stacked one on top of another. Norway, Feb 1980. Lady Charlotte was the first route that I officially gave E5. That includes Wild Country which was thought to be too short to warrant E5. Spring 1980, Craig a Barns. Tom Proctor left a legacy of Peak desperates and Circe is a testimony to the man’s legendary power and vision. Cubby on a rare ground-up ascent - the last before a bolt was placed to protect the crux. Autumn 1980. Photo: Duncan McCallum. The ‘Old Fox’ – Hamish MacInnes briefs Rab Carrington on the days’ itinerary during the making of Five Days One Summer. One growl from Rab was enough to send the entire crew into a quaking mass! September 1982, Switzerland. Geoff Arkless, the wise old man of the mountains. From a climbing and guiding perspective, Geoff was like a second father to me. Seen here characteristically with a Gauloise in his hand. Argentiere, early 80’s.

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80 – My departure from Edinburgh to Glasgow provides a refreshing start to the new decade. With that departure I leave behind the competitive school boy attitude of youth. I always valued climbing partnerships and teamed up with the gent of Scottish mountaineering – Ken Johnstone. My training stepped up a gear, working on dynamics, or as they say in California “you gotta be inta leapin man”, circuits with weights and managed a 100 pull ups straight off, but I still valued climbing and being at the sharp end most of all. First ascent of Hudnafossen in Hemsedall, thought by Hans Christian Dosseth to be Norway’s hardest. At home Rainmaker and Captain Hook stand out, and a second ascent of Rouse and Carrington’s Right Hand Route on the Ben. The spring was productive. Lady Charlotte, Chemin de Fer, Rest and be Thankful and Eldorado Direct, consolidate E5 in Scottish climbing. A starring role in a live BBC spectacular in Glencoe with Murray Hamilton, Joe Brown and Jackie Antoine – secured income for a trip abroad. But guiding in the Alps with Mal Duff didn’t work out. His business partner and climbing companion, Rob Bruce, dies on Mont Maudit after a climbing accident. Summer spent in the Verdon. BMC organise exchange for top Japanese to visit UK and to learn about modern rock climbing – first on-sights of Supersonic, Scarab, Apocalypse and an early ascent of Circe in the Peak.

81 – Feeling unstoppable – a dangerous area. Then the inevitable – a serious fall attempting a new route. Haunted by flashbacks and dizzy spells, I would never regain my confidence to that same level. It was important to keep climbing though and a couple of 40 footers on Tales of Yankie Power in the Peak did the trick! First ascents of Revengence and Profit of Purism further establish the E6 grade.

82 – Six days a week in Nevisport and then guiding – time was precious. First ascents are not an obsession but to break new barriers requires doing something very special. That’s when I became obsessed. Climbing in different areas and doing established routes remains important and influential, and a gauge by which I could measure my own climbs. A job working under Hamish McInnes on the Fred Zinneman film – Five Days One Summer, starring Sean Connory added variety to the monotony of my work repairing skis in Nevisport and guiding. Despite earlier comments, there’s always a place in my heart for new routes and Dalness Chasm in winter was a surprisingly traditional affair but outstanding nevertheless. Establish E5 on the Isle of Skye, free Loki in the Cairngorms and add a bunch of hard test pieces to Glen Nevis.

83 – Meet the grand old man of British guiding, Geoff Arkless. Geoff takes me under his wing and offers me a job in Scotland and the Alps. The winter of 83 is a tough season but I manage to find time for the occasional route such as Stormy Petrel and Waterfall Direct. The beauty of guiding was that you could keep an eye on developing conditions. The down side was not having the time to do the climbs. By the spring I was looking for something more futuristic. Jerry Moffatt’s exploits at home and abroad and especially his trip to America were an inspiration. Requiem provided the perfect experiment. It was a protracted ascent that involved twelve days of climbing. It should be borne in mind that from each high point gained, the climb was not worked and I would lower back to the ground. However, ropes were often left in place. Only on reaching the last move, the crux on several occasions, did I succumb to top-roping that section in preparation for another attempt. The climb is confirmed at E8 today.

At the top of Guerdon Grooves, Arthur turned to me and in a most incredibly understated manner said, “I think that’s the first route I’ve done that genuinely warrants grade VI”! Arthur on the first winter ascent of Snowstormer two days later. December 1984.84 – Memorable for one of the most incredible blizzards on record and the first winter ascent of Guerdon Grooves with the well-known Creag Dubh climber Arthur Paul. Given a projected grade of IX today, that can’t really be confirmed until its second ascent. There again, an ascent twenty years after the first, and the first having been done in perfect style, cannot be compared! Jabberwoky and Snowstormer, two excellent climbs on Gearr Aonach were added that same week. Started training to become an International Mountain Guide. Romantic Reality and Gone with the Wind were two worthy additions, consolidating the upper E6, bottom end E7 grade. Serious throat infection leaves me grounded for some months. My first season in the Alps with Geoff and Brede Arkless - hard but rewarding work. Do the Bonnati Pillar but fail to free the roof variant because of ice.

“So what’s the route like Murray?”. “Yeah it’s quite good”, he replied conservatively. “I mean how hard is it?”. “Quite hard” he replied, “and there’s a crucial runner”. “Where?”, I enquired. “That would be telling”. Cubby on the second ascent of the Dubh Loch’s Slartibartfast. 85 - Yet another tough year guiding in the Scottish Highlands and the Swiss and French Alps. A trip to Arran establishes E5, and the Outer Hebrides open my eyes to the sea cliff potential on the islands. But 1985 is yet another turning point in my climbing career. Just when I was beginning to feel that I had taken Scottish climbing as far as I could, without repeating myself and if anything getting a little bored, I was struck by H.A.P.E in the Garwhal, Himalaya. Lucky to be alive I spend ten days in an Indian hospital! This experience confirmed my inability to acclimatize quickly and efficiently, something I had noticed even in the Alps. It broke my heart to turn down other trips and in particular one by Paul Moores to join an expedition to climb the unclimbed North Pinnacles on Everest. Reality is cruel!

86 – After my experience in the Himalayas I was mentally and physically I feel at an all time low. In times like this however, climbing can be a great healer. I pulled myself together and decided that I needed some therapy. Novembers in the 80’s were wild and snowy so I set off on what I would now regard as a suicide mission to solo Zero Gully. I hadn’t done Zero before and given the atrocious conditions I trailed a rope, for all it was worth. It was a brilliant but epic day in continuous spindrift. Once again my spirits were lifted.

“What is your name?”, enquired the Lal Baba of Gaumukh, gateway to the sacred Bagharathi. “David, very religious name”, he said sitting in the lotus position next to the pilgrims trail, making chapattis. “David very ill. I give you my card”. On one side it said The Lal Baba of Gaumukh, source to the sacred river Ganges, on the other, Bangkok jewellers! Sport climbing comes of age in England and Europe. I was damming of the trend, it stood for everything I strived against in my own climbing. However, I didn’t like to be critical of something I admitted to knowing very little about, and through a friend (Graeme Livingstone aka The Brat), I gave it a go. Surprised, I took to it. Sport climbing offered little in the way of compensation for my love off mountains, but it was new and different and confidence needed re building. John Dunne and Mark Leech were the big guns in British sport climbing. I watched Mark do the 2nd ascent of Raindogs, an 8a in Yorkshire and was impressed. Four days apiece were required for their 2nd and 3rd ascents. A further four for my own on the fourth ascent and I was hooked. Sport climbing dominates my climbing for the next few years. But that strength and fitness was also applied to good effect on the likes on Femme Fatale. Inevitably sport climbing in England and Europe were influential resulting in the controversial development of my own sport climbs in Scotland, The Railway Children and Marlina.

The winter of 86 was superb. The new guide to the Ben and Glencoe is hot off the press and full of inflated grades. To prove a point, the Brat and I take a political stance and solo a number of climbs previously given grade V, climbs that we hadn’t done before. Politics aside, they were wild days - Galactic, Rubicon Wall, Slav Direct, Sickle, Left Edge Direct, Rainmaker, Smiths Gully on Meagaidh were all climbed solo, and on an ascent of Fly Direct we predominately moved together! It all ended half way up the Pointless corner where I teetered back down to regain some sensibility. Eric Jones in North Wales promised me a full breakfast if I did Strawberries – all I got was a mug of tea, proving that the Welsh are more thrifty than the scots! Lord of the Flies on the Cromlech seemed ok, at least by comparison to the second ascent of Hamilton’s Slartibartfast on the Dubh Loch.

Marlina is of course a Scottish ism on Marlene Dietrich, and taken from the hit Marlene On The Wall by Suzanne Vega - the chorus of which summed up my feeling at the time. 1996. Photo: Alistair Todd.87 – I qualified as an International Mountain Guide and then narrowly avoid being killed when a crevasse collapsed while guiding on Mont Blanc du Tacul.

In the remaining years leading up to 1990, sport climbing would dominate my climbing. However there were numerous forays to my favourite Scottish haunts. In the company of the talented South African, Andy de Klerke, I freed Lame Beaver and added Liminalty. The Screaming Ab Dabs was climbed the day Pritchard and Dawes completed The Scoop, and nipping in to do County Ethics in Northumberland from beneath the noses of the locals, was satisfying. E7 is firmly established in Scottish climbing. On Yorkshire limestone, numerous second and early ascents of 8a, 8a+ and 8b routes were completed. In 89 I compete at the Leeds World Cup and acquire a taste for comps and become a member of the British Team. My best result being tenth at the Lyon Coup du Monde in 89.

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